The present invention relates, in general, to interconnects and, more particularly, to optical interconnects.
Optical fiber technology is used in a variety of applications such as telecommunication, computer, and medical applications. An important aspect of optical fiber technology is the interconnection of an optical fiber to a device for transmitting or receiving information conducted by the optical fiber.
Coupling an optical fiber to an optoelectronic device is conventionally done using active alignment. To couple a semiconductor laser to an optical fiber, a first end of the optical fiber is placed near a light emitting surface of the laser and a second end of the optical fiber is coupled to a photodetector. The laser is turned on and the position of the first end of the optical fiber is manipulated manually around the light emitting surface of the laser until the photodetector detects a maximum optical radiation signal transmitted through the optical fiber. A molding material such as optical epoxy is then applied to both the laser and the first end of the optical fiber to maintain this optimum coupling. Similarly, a photodetector can be coupled to an optical fiber by shining light from a laser into a first end of the optical fiber and manually adjusting the position of a second end of the optical fiber in accordance with the strength of the optical signal transmitted through the optical fiber.
Because the light emitting surface area of a semiconductor laser is very small, coupling a semiconductor laser to an optical fiber is usually time consuming and requires skills of a experienced person. Likewise, the size of a photodetector is small, thus coupling an optical fiber to a photodetector is difficult. Although the size of the photodetector can be increased, this degrades the operating speed and frequency response as well as increases its cost.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a method and a structure for interconnecting an optical fiber with an optoelectronic device. It is desirable for the method to be simple and time efficient. It is also desirable for the structure to be cost efficient.